Released Features
As updates of Onverse have been developed, there have been certain features which were a large part of the game. Some have been discontinued but most are still available today. This article is basically a summary of each big update released. Beta Opens! 0.1 We're proud to finally open Onverse's beta today! A lot of you have been waiting a long time for this day and we thank you very much for your great ideas, forum help and patience. Finally you can get inside the world and start collecting those pesky Player Points. I wanted to explain a few things about what it means to be a part of a product's beta. As a beta tester, you get to see the world from infancy into a polished final product. You get to be here and help make decisions that change the course of the game. It can be very exciting. You are also likely, however, to run into problems. You might get confused with the way we built something, you might crash, see spelling errors, fall through the world, etc. These are all things that we've tried hard to polish before opening the beta, but alas we are humans and to err is human. What we ask of you as a beta tester is to help us find these problems. Help us to make Onverse everything it has the potential to be. We are here for you and Onverse was built for you, so your opinions count more than anything. We will be moving as quickly as possible to fix any problems, as well as adding new content as we move forward. We'd like to keep an open line of communication with you. We can't fix something that we don't know about, so please be vocal about your bugs as well as your opinions. Let us know via our forums and our support email: Web Technical Support: http://forum.onverse.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17 Game Technical Support: http://forum.onverse.com/forumdisplay.php?f=18 You can also always email us at support@onverse.com as well. The future of Onverse is wide open. Get inside and you will see that we've all got our own little world here to build into whatever we want. Ancient lands to distant planets, giant cities to deep wildernesses, movies, music, games, vehicles, pets, etc - the world is our canvas and we want you to be part of it. The only thing I can guarantee is that we will continually strive to be your best choice for a virtual world. Fun with your friends will always be the primary goal of Onverse. With that I leave you to your fun! Onverse yourself... get inside! Sincerely, Steve M. Pierce II CEO - Onverse 0.2 We've been hard at work fixing any reported problems as well as problems we've found on our end. So far, we are very happy with your feedback and the performance of our servers. The servers went up June 15th and never came down until this update! Please continue to let us know how we're doing via our forums and support/feedback emails. As always, Onverse is here to be an awesome place for you and your friends to hang out online. We hope you enjoy this update. Game Updates Content *Some massive, rare Tool Targets have been spotted on Volcano Island!! *Increased the spawn rate of lvl 1 Tool Targets. *Added hammocks and drinks to the free spawns in the Onverse Store. *Added some cool new tier 3 (rare) clothing objects that can be found in Bling, Regalia, Threadz and Overtone. *The items sold in Chillax should be more evenly distributed throughout the store. *Added sounds to purchases so it's clear when you make a purchase or don't have enough points. *Doubled the amount of load screen tips that can appear, hopefully giving some more hints to help you experience Onverse to its fullest. Shopping Spawn GlowsWe've added a light glow below each shopping spawn. The color of this glow denotes what tier of object is currently spawned. The item tiering system has been in there, but there was no clear visualization to help you know what you can and cannot purchase without clicking on it. This should help you sort out what you can get in a store with a quick glance. A little more on the item tiering system: *Tier 0 - Color: White - Free items *Tier 1 - Color: Blue - PP Items *Tier 2 - Color: Orange - CC Items *Tier 3 - Color: Red - Rare PP Items *Tier 4 - Color: Gold - Limited Edition CC Items Furniture Slot CapsWe have increased the amount of furniture you can own from 100 to 250. However, we have implemented a scaling system of how many furniture objects you can place, based on what type of home you own. This is simply for performance reasons. If uncapped, apartment buildings and even the island could become unplayable due to the loading of thousands of items as you walk around. Below is a chart of the scaling system: *Free Apartments: 75 objects *Bungalows: 75 objects *Cottages: 100 objects *Deluxe Apartments: 150 objects *Houses: 175 objects *Villas: 200 objects *Mansions: 250 objects Better Instancing Explanations (Map)We tried to add better descriptions to help people understand how our instancing system works on our maps. Before you enter an area or apartment complex, there is an area in the bottom right of your map that you can choose which instance (or copy) of that area you would like to go to. This is how we allow people to get their free apartments, even though the first floor might already be full. We will be working on a way to tell by looking at your map how many open homes there are available as well. We added an instance of Volcano Island and there should be 3 floors to pick from in the free apartments. If we need more, we can add these on-the-fly. Help ButtonWe added a help button to your command buttons. Currently this will simply take you to our game tips on the website, which have also been improved. We hope to increase the usability of this button in-game in the near future, as well as work on a tutorial system to help guide our new users. Better Graphics Options *D3D should work better now, but there may still be some issues to work out. *We added a new setting called Lowest, as well as tweaked what each setting includes. This allows users with slower computers to get the most out of their experience. *We changed the default screenshot (CTRL+P) to JPG format. PNG format still has some issues on some systems. *We added some fixes for users who were losing their window off their screen. Bugs Connection times and "Becoming self-aware" Hitch: This should be fixed with this update; however it requires a full re-install of Onverse. When you launch Onverse, a pop-up will direct you to the download. We had to re-do the way we install to fix this issue unfortunately. Incomplete Downloads: This should not have been happening with the provider we were using to host our download. We have moved the download to another service that should be faster and more reliable. Non-US Countries Having Trouble Buying CCsWe discovered a problem here with the passing of IP addresses. We should hopefully have this fixed (it's separate from the Onverse update) by this evening. Let me know if there are still issues tonight/tomorrow. Thanks for your patience on this one! Virus Protection SoftwareWe have our software signed now so any virus protection you have should have a better time accepting the install. Onverse has no viruses, yay! Other Bugs *Teleporting while sitting should no longer prevent the use of your tools. *The barbell in the free items is now actually free. *Fixed some spots on Volcano Island where you could fall and get stuck. *Fixed some incorrect object descriptions and spelling errors. *Wedding dress is now a tier 3 item. *Fixed the missing polygons on male avatar arms while wearing a tank top. *Fixed the collision on rugs that couldn't be clicked for purchase. *Fixed the collision on the large flat screen TVs. *We had to re-create the lace shirts and night gowns from scratch. There was an issue with transparencies and the way they were built. *In some homes and apartments when you placed a wall object, it would start off rotated. This has been fixed. *Chat messages should now stay up 10 seconds before fading out. *Made the tooltips on the command buttons more legible. *Change the rare "Bubble Chair" to cost PP, not CC. *Fixed some lighting issues with the teddy bears. Website Updates Play Now Button We added this button so you can launch Onverse from the web. Unfortunately a last minute find was that it won't work for Windows Vista and 7 users. We know the fix, but didn't want to delay everything else for another day. Temporarily it will just tell you where to launch Onverse from. We are hoping for another update next week that we will get this functional for. Invite Friends Button This takes you to a new page for inviting friends. We've added two new options for inviting friends. We now generate a link that you can copy and paste anywhere (social networks, websites, email, chat, etc). Anyone who uses this link to come to the site and sign up will grant you 25 Cash Coins and will automatically be added to your friends list. We also added a section where you can enter what email address you would like to send the link FROM, and then list any email addresses you want to send the link TO below. A lot of people didn't use the email providers listed in our friend inviter and this should allow anyone to invite. Website Timeout Increase We have increased the time limit for when you seem idle and time out on the forums. This was catching some people (myself included) while they were typing long posts, or simply taking a break. Friend Updates We changed the format of the Friend Updates section of your Friends page. We now group all user activities into a single daily update, rather than a new update every time. This cuts down the amount of space the updates were taking up tremendously. Game Tips We have added our load screens to these tips for some graphical goodness. Sincerely, Steve M. Pierce II CEO - Onverse 0.3 (July 3rd, 2009) 4th of July This update was an area on the beach by the bridge where Limited 4th of July items and the Sparkler were first introduced. Fireworks were and continue to be available to shoot off around the beach and in the shark tank. This area had a free flag tool, an American Independence Suit, and more items. Although this area is no longer available, it might be released next July... 0.4 (August 5th, 2009) The Learning Center This is a place where people new to the game can learn to play it. It teaches everything from teleporting to places, to buying a new home, to collecting PP's, and more. However, what it doesn't show you are the secrets of Onverse which advanced users have figured out on their own... Guides These 15 helpful users are dedicated to keeping Onverse safe and fun, as well as helping people with the game. They were specifically chosen from a list of volunteers by the developers and are trusted with certain privileges to enforce the rules in both the forums and the game world. If you ever need any help, you can just type in the game chat "/guide" and then your question. The Skeleton Closet This store is resting on the top of a waterfall and sells many costumes such as super heroes, panda bears, pirates, ghosts, and barrels. It seems that the developers' imaginations truly shine through here. Although most of the items here are for sale via CC's, there are certain items that are worth PP's such as the box costume which captures everyone's attention. Seymour the PP Dealing Duck This mysterious character is lurking around the world of Onverse and is willing to trade 1000 PP's for every 100 CC's you present him. For some reason, he wears a purple suit... 0.5 (September 18th, 2009) Pets It seems that the developers have put a lot of effort into making these animals. There are cats, dogs, monkeys, giraffes, and more animals which follow you around. Although most pets are worth CC's, there are also dragons and other special pets available for at least 30,000 PP. These pets can be named, fed, petted, and do tricks. There are also simpler, stationary pets which can rest on your shoulder or in your home (for PP's). Icefall Although essentially this game is a snowball fight, nobody who plays it seems to think of it that way. It is a competitive mini-game where you throw snowballs at people while trying to collect PP's and staying on the platform. Tiles are crumbling and falling beneath you. Everyone is trying to gain the advantage by using the randomly spawning 3 power-ups, making the game even more competitive. In the Icefall world, there are 4 arenas: free, 100 PP, 500 PP, and 1,000 PP. There is also a lobby to hang out at, buy Icefall clothes, and admire the view of the world the developers have created...